NFL in Bozeman: A Jolly Good Idea

An NFL franchise in Bozeman.

That’s right, the former little cow-college town in the heart of the Gallatin Valley, population a shade over 53,000, in a league alongside the Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks, Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings.

Far-fetched? Hear him out. Barnwell argues it might just be a jolly good idea.

Barnwell posits that because England, which is roughly the size of Ohio, has 92 professional soccer clubs, why must the NFL cap its franchises at 32?

“If England can support 92 professional soccer teams, America can do better,” he writes.

To that end, Barnwell suggests adding 68 more American cities to the mix – including Bozeman, which he places in an eight-team West division with Salt Lake City, Boise, Laramie, Sioux Falls, Bismarck and Fargo along with the pre-existing Broncos.

“With sparsely populated states such as Montana and the Dakotas gaining population after the (COVID) pandemic, there are a few natural landing spots for potential cities,” Barnwell explains. “Do they have the sheer number of people to sell 80,000 tickets to most home games?Probably not. In a country with 100 professional football teams, could they passionately support teams in small stadiums? Absolutely.”

As if the state’s largest city, Billings, isn’t already rankled enough by Bozeman now having the state’s busiest airport, Barnwell gives Bozeman the edge over a city twice its size due to its ready-made 20,000-seat arena: Bobcat Stadium.

“Another new state for professional football!” Barnwell writes. “While Billings is the biggest city in Montana by a considerable margin, Bozeman is rapidly growing…”

And, of course, as if the pandemic and “A River Runs Through It” hadn’t already flooded southwest Montana with folks from elsewhere, there had to be a John Dutton reference.

“With the popularity of the ‘Yellowstone’ TV show growing the city, Bozeman might only be a couple more spin-offs away from requiring a larger park for its new team,” Barnwell concludes.

In such a scenario, Bozeman would not only have natural arch-rivals within its region but also in proposed franchises in Spokane and Portland.

Barnwell cites a variety of factors for his choices, starting with population. He points out that some of England’s top-level soccer franchises are in smaller communities with smaller venues.

“I also considered whether each city had access to an existing football stadium and/or had a history of supporting football,” he continues.

While certainly a novel concept, this isn’t the first time a national writer has proposed locating an NFL franchise in Montana.

In 2016, when the NFL’s Rams announced their return to Los Angeles from St. Louis, Newsweek reporter John Walters yawned and instead suggested the franchise move to Billings and be renamed the Bighorns.

“What if the Rams had moved to a state named after a four-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback?” Walters wrote then. “What if the team now fleeing St. Louis, the origin point of the Lewis and Clark expedition, had relocated to the town where Captain William Clark once etched his name (on a slab at Pompeys Pillar)?

“Who wouldn’t root for the Billings Bighorns? The team’s fans would tailgate along the Yellowstone River, proudly donning shirts that read, “Talk is sheep!” Kids all over the state and beyond would proudly refer to themselves as Little Bighorns. Those Montanans whose births predate the first Super Bowl might be known as the team’s Old Faithful. Every time the Bighorns scored, a geyser would erupt behind an end zone. From Missoula to Miles City, an NFL franchise based in Montana would incite Ram-demonium.”

As then Billings Chamber of Commerce president and CEO John Brewer rightly acknowledged to Walters, the city would welcome the Rams but would have to carve out land to build a stadium. So back to Los Angeles the team went.

Bozeman, as Barnwell points out, already has a stadium. It has hosted one of the nation’s iconic pregame shows and also comes equipped with the best pregame runout in college football.

Now all we need is a nickname.